Chương 135: Reborn as the Dragon — Chapter 135 - No Matter How You Think About It, It's Not Right

It took a full two hours for Su Nian to finish that pot of "poisonous soup" brewed with deep affection. How to describe the experience? The pot was full of spiders, scorpions, centipedes, and all manner of crawling things. Yet the medicinal broth was cloyingly, unbearably sweet. Sweet enough that by the end, Su Nian's tongue had gone numb. His heart had too. After feeding the last spoonful, Anna licked her pink lips with the tip of her tongue, looking faintly unsatisfied.

So she leaned back down and planted a loud kiss on Su Nian's big face, leaving behind a cool, damp lip print, and only then seemed content. Any more kissing than that, and big brother might do something he shouldn't.

"Big brother, rest well~ If you need anything, just tell Anna. Anna will do her best." She pursed her lips into a smile, reached out her soft little hand, and tapped the Black Dragon's nose with one finger. Then she twisted her slender waist and climbed down from his chest to tidy up her bottles and jars. She was determined to keep the Dragon's Nest spotless.

"Anna..." Su Nian lay flat on the Bedrock Platform, staring up at the narrow sliver of sky visible through the top of the lair. His eyes were a little vacant.

"What's wrong~ big brother?" Anna turned partway toward him. The twist of her body outpaced her apron, which failed to cover what it was supposed to cover. Su Nian took it all in. He drew a slow, deep breath.

"I just wanted to ask, is medicine always going to be fed like this from now on?"

"Of course~" Anna nodded as if this were obvious.

"Big brother is a sick dragon~ Naturally you need proper care~ How could we possibly let big brother feed yourself? Anna has to feed you. That's just how it is." She said it with absolute conviction, completely matter-of-fact. Seeing Su Nian sink into thought again, going full contemplative dragon, she hummed a formless little tune and went back to her work.

"Haah—" Su Nian sighed inwardly. It wasn't that he disliked Anna's clingy attentiveness. He just worried that one day he might not be able to stop himself. But Anna had a dragon heart now. Maybe... probably... it would be okay? No. Okay my ass! The thought surfaced and he crushed it immediately. No matter how he looked at it, it was wrong. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.... Sakura Island No. 2 Starter Village.

"Akase-kun, this is Murakkei-kun. He's the one who asked to meet you." A room hung floor-to-ceiling with monster skulls. A group of Sakura Players knelt on the floor in silence. Seated at the head was a formidable-looking middle-aged man. Nine feet tall, his powerful upper body bare. His broad, square face was framed by a thick beard, and his eyes blazed with sharp intensity, the kind of presence that commanded respect without needing to try. He was the village chief of Sakura Island No. 2 Starter Village.

A level 21 warrior player. Ohguchi Akase. The one who'd spoken was his subordinate, currently making introductions on Yamaguchi Mura Chicken's behalf.

"Murakkei-kun." Ohguchi Akase's voice rolled out like muffled thunder, rattling uncomfortably in the ears of everyone nearby.

"I heard you were beaten to a pulp by a bunch of monsters at Sakura Island No. 1 Starter Village?!"

"You are a disgrace to Sakura people everywhere."

"If I were you, I would have already committed seppuku!" He unloaded on Yamaguchi Mura Chicken without mercy. They weren't strangers in the real world, as it happened. Ohguchi Akase was Yamaguchi Mura Chicken's uncle, both members of the Yamaguchi family, though they'd barely crossed paths more than a handful of times. Ohguchi Akase had only the faintest impression of this younger relative. Now even that faint impression had curdled into contempt.

"Akase-kun, those monsters are different." Yamaguchi Mura Chicken kept his head bowed, his voice trembling, whether from humiliation or fury, it was hard to say.

"Different! How are they different?"

"No matter how different they are, they're still brainless monsters! And you are a Sakura person with a brain!" Whatever Yamaguchi Mura Chicken said, Ohguchi Akase dismissed it as excuses for incompetence. Yamaguchi Mura Chicken pressed his lips together. His hands were shaking as he pulled up a recording, meeting Ohguchi Akase's crushing gaze head-on.

"Please, everyone, watch this. When it's done, if you all still believe I was simply incompetent, I will commit seppuku and leave No. 2 Starter Village." Ohguchi Akase said nothing more. The other Sakura Players in the room shifted their attention to the screen. The recording flickered on. The perspective was lurching and unstable, the surroundings a blur.

"Huff — huff — huff..." Heavy, ragged breathing filled the audio. Whoever had shot this footage was running for their life.

"Trash!" Ohguchi Akase snorted. He'd assumed Yamaguchi Mura Chicken had recorded this himself, which would have made him nothing more than a coward who knew how to run. A clown. He changed his mind almost immediately. The camera swung around. The player was looking back over their shoulder. The frame filled with a sea of scarlet eyes. Even through a recording, the brutality radiated. The malice was thick.

"MOMMY!" The player on-screen let out a shriek. Ohguchi Akase's expression shifted slightly. At least that wasn't Yamaguchi Mura Chicken's voice. If it had been, he might have already risen from his seat and split the man in two.

"BOOM, BOOM, BOOM," Heavy footfalls shook the audio. Like a stampede of cattle. The blood-red eyes were closing in, moving faster than the player could run. Every Sakura Player watching broke into a cold sweat. It felt like watching a horror film, the pressure coming off that footage was suffocating. Then the player in the recording betrayed their silent hopes. At the worst possible moment, he tripped over a rock.

"BAKA! GET UP!"

"Even if you can't run, draw your weapon! Die like a true Sakura warrior!" The player did not get up. A massive, fur-covered foot came down on his back. The view lurched upward. A monstrous claw had seized him by the skull and hoisted him into the air. Crrk, crrk, crrk... A teeth-grinding rasp filled the recording. The camera rotated. A nightmare of a rabbit face filled the frame, lumpy, muscle-ridged, wrong.

The grinding sound was coming from between its enormous front teeth, which it was steadily working back and forth. In its scarlet eyes, the player's own face was reflected back at him, twisted with pure terror. The view climbed higher and higher, the angle tilting from looking up to looking down. Every Sakura Player in the room drew a sharp breath at once. They understood what they were seeing. The rabbit had lifted the player off the ground. And behind it, more rabbits. Dozens.

Packed together in a seething mass, crimson eyes blazing, mouths working with heavy, rhythmic pants, killing intent radiating off them like heat. SNAP, The player's neck broke. The recording tilted ninety degrees and went dark. The room was silent. The air had gone still and heavy. Even Ohguchi Akase, seated at the head, was frowning, brow knitted tight, saying nothing. ➤ Next: Sweetheart, I've Missed You